ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Computer for operations with functions

Okay kiddo, so you know how computers can help us do a lot of things really fast and easily? Well, one of the things they're really good at is doing math for us. And that's where talking about "operations with functions" comes in!

First, let's talk about what a function is. It's like a little machine that takes in some input (like a number) and gives you a new output (like a different number). For example, if you put in the number 2 into the function "x + 3", the output would be 5, because 2 + 3 = 5. Make sense?

Now, sometimes we want to do more complicated things with functions, like adding them together or multiplying them. And that's where the "operations" part comes in. We can use symbols like "+" and "*" to tell the computer what we want it to do.

So if we have two functions, like "x^2" and "2x", we could add them together with the "+" sign to get the function "x^2 + 2x". Or we could multiply them with the "*" sign to get the function "2x^3".

And the cool thing is, computers are really good at doing these operations really fast and accurately, which can be really helpful in things like math or science or even games!
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